Examining the relationship between social inclusion and mobile libraries in the age of Internet connectivity: A qualitative study of mobile librarians around the globe
In order to help serve community members suffering from public library access inequity, many library institutions provide mobile library services to help them connect directly with their communities and provide strong social, educational and emotional support to those in need. Via the use of a serie...
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ftdatacite:10.25384/sage.c.5051837 2023-05-15T16:52:28+02:00 Examining the relationship between social inclusion and mobile libraries in the age of Internet connectivity: A qualitative study of mobile librarians around the globe Lo, Patrick Stark, Andrew 2020 https://dx.doi.org/10.25384/sage.c.5051837 https://sage.figshare.com/collections/Examining_the_relationship_between_social_inclusion_and_mobile_libraries_in_the_age_of_Internet_connectivity_A_qualitative_study_of_mobile_librarians_around_the_globe/5051837 unknown SAGE Journals https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0961000620935476 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode CC-BY-4.0 CC-BY 89999 Information and Computing Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Computer and information sciences Collection article 2020 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.25384/sage.c.5051837 https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000620935476 2021-11-05T12:55:41Z In order to help serve community members suffering from public library access inequity, many library institutions provide mobile library services to help them connect directly with their communities and provide strong social, educational and emotional support to those in need. Via the use of a series of in-depth one-on-one interviews with individual mobile librarians practising in different parts of the world, this article aims to examine the new and changing roles of mobile libraries and librarians – the roles they play in supporting communities that suffer from a lack of readily accessible library resources, have extreme social inequity, or have lost touch with their usual library community owing to natural disasters. Nine mobile librarians took part in this study and the countries they represent are as follows: Australia, China, Croatia, Greece, Iceland, India, Japan, the USA and Zimbabwe. The user groups of the nine participating mobile libraries included refugees, impoverished children, migrant families and disaster-affected populations, who suffered, in particular, from extreme educational and informational inequality. The interview findings from the study indicate that mobile libraries play an important role in providing resources to different disadvantaged user groups, as well as enabling those with limited access to educational facilities and reading programmes with opportunities to survive and prosper in their communities. Not only do mobile libraries provide age- and content-appropriate resources and alternative literacy programmes for their patrons, but they also create new spaces for social connection for community members who may be disparate, isolated or physically unable to venture far from home. In summary, mobile libraries have the potential to function as a ‘social equaliser’ by extending the philosophy of social equality and erasing social, economic and educational barriers through the provision of literacy and learning opportunities for community members of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
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89999 Information and Computing Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Computer and information sciences |
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89999 Information and Computing Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Computer and information sciences Lo, Patrick Stark, Andrew Examining the relationship between social inclusion and mobile libraries in the age of Internet connectivity: A qualitative study of mobile librarians around the globe |
topic_facet |
89999 Information and Computing Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Computer and information sciences |
description |
In order to help serve community members suffering from public library access inequity, many library institutions provide mobile library services to help them connect directly with their communities and provide strong social, educational and emotional support to those in need. Via the use of a series of in-depth one-on-one interviews with individual mobile librarians practising in different parts of the world, this article aims to examine the new and changing roles of mobile libraries and librarians – the roles they play in supporting communities that suffer from a lack of readily accessible library resources, have extreme social inequity, or have lost touch with their usual library community owing to natural disasters. Nine mobile librarians took part in this study and the countries they represent are as follows: Australia, China, Croatia, Greece, Iceland, India, Japan, the USA and Zimbabwe. The user groups of the nine participating mobile libraries included refugees, impoverished children, migrant families and disaster-affected populations, who suffered, in particular, from extreme educational and informational inequality. The interview findings from the study indicate that mobile libraries play an important role in providing resources to different disadvantaged user groups, as well as enabling those with limited access to educational facilities and reading programmes with opportunities to survive and prosper in their communities. Not only do mobile libraries provide age- and content-appropriate resources and alternative literacy programmes for their patrons, but they also create new spaces for social connection for community members who may be disparate, isolated or physically unable to venture far from home. In summary, mobile libraries have the potential to function as a ‘social equaliser’ by extending the philosophy of social equality and erasing social, economic and educational barriers through the provision of literacy and learning opportunities for community members of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lo, Patrick Stark, Andrew |
author_facet |
Lo, Patrick Stark, Andrew |
author_sort |
Lo, Patrick |
title |
Examining the relationship between social inclusion and mobile libraries in the age of Internet connectivity: A qualitative study of mobile librarians around the globe |
title_short |
Examining the relationship between social inclusion and mobile libraries in the age of Internet connectivity: A qualitative study of mobile librarians around the globe |
title_full |
Examining the relationship between social inclusion and mobile libraries in the age of Internet connectivity: A qualitative study of mobile librarians around the globe |
title_fullStr |
Examining the relationship between social inclusion and mobile libraries in the age of Internet connectivity: A qualitative study of mobile librarians around the globe |
title_full_unstemmed |
Examining the relationship between social inclusion and mobile libraries in the age of Internet connectivity: A qualitative study of mobile librarians around the globe |
title_sort |
examining the relationship between social inclusion and mobile libraries in the age of internet connectivity: a qualitative study of mobile librarians around the globe |
publisher |
SAGE Journals |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.25384/sage.c.5051837 https://sage.figshare.com/collections/Examining_the_relationship_between_social_inclusion_and_mobile_libraries_in_the_age_of_Internet_connectivity_A_qualitative_study_of_mobile_librarians_around_the_globe/5051837 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0961000620935476 |
op_rights |
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode CC-BY-4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.25384/sage.c.5051837 https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000620935476 |
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1766042756672651264 |